iconoclastic

[ ahy-kon-uh-klas-tik ]

adjective

1. attacking or ignoring cherished beliefs and long-held traditions, etc., as being based on error, superstition, or lack of creativity:

   an iconoclastic architect whose buildings are like monumental sculptures.

2. breaking or destroying images, especially those set up for religious veneration.

Other Words From

• i·cono·clasti·cal·ly adverb
• noni·cono·clastic adjective
• noni·cono·clasti·cal·ly adverb
• uni·cono·clastic adjective
• uni·cono·clasti·cal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of iconoclastic¹

First recorded in 1640–45; iconoclast + -ic

Example Sentences

Amy Winehouse, the iconoclastic singer-songwriter, was that age when she died of alcohol poisoning in 2011.

From Los Angeles Times

For decades, Hern has advanced the iconoclastic position that pregnancy is not different from disease.

From Los Angeles Times

The most telling detail in all of the Usha Vance profiles when it comes to determining her politics and, more broadly, her worldview comes from one connection, and the enormous benefits it seems to have already parlayed to the lawyer: Along with her husband, she “sought out the iconoclastic professor Amy Chua” when they both attended Yale Law School, the New York Times reports.

From Slate

Ai is famed for his iconoclastic, conceptual art practice that includes performance, photography, sculptures and installations, which are often made with salvaged or surprising materials like ancient pottery, bicycles, porcelain sunflower seeds or rebar from schoolhouses that collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake of 2008.

From Seattle Times

The iconoclastic Jodorowsky arrives in town this weekend for a retrospective at the American Cinematheque — it’s his first visit in more than six years.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• irreverent